She Always Knows
by lalalena
Summary: Felicity Smoak moved to Starling City after living in Gotham, vigilantes seeming to follow her where she goes. So when a green hooded vigilante sparks her interest, she knows exactly what she is in for,
1. Chapter 1

At sixteen floors up, Felicity Smoak had a pretty good view of Starling City; People below walking to their destinations in a hurry, running into each other as they look at their phones. She wondered where they were going, work? Home? To meet someone?

She chewed on her pen while watching them, wondering if the ink would ever explode and make it look like she was a vampire who just had lunch. That couldn't happen though, she thought, vampires were not up during the _day,_ this was not one of those kinds of stories. Having someone watch you sleep was creepier than anything.

Sighing, Felicity turned around to her desk waking up her monitor. As Head of Applied Sciences at Queen Consolidated, Felicity had meetings upon meetings with the CEO and CFO to talk about what was going on in the Applied Sciences department.

Which was why she had a big presentation today with the new CEO, Oliver Queen, along with _her_ , Isabel Rochev who was not her favorite person but couldn't avoid and saw her almost on a daily basis now that she was the CFO after what had happened a few months ago?

A few months ago. Felicity closed her eyes at the thought, thinking of the 503 people who had lost their lives in what is now known as the Undertaking. She cried the night the Undertaking happened while watching the news. There she was, safe in her apartment away from The Glades, away from the destruction as people were running for their lives.

She even tried to help them, tried to find the bomb that was going to go off, hack her way into the bomb's system and dismantle it. She found the bomb with two seconds left on the timer. She couldn't do anything, couldn't tell the man in the green hood where it was so he could do his arrowy thing and save the city. No, she couldn't. So she sat there, in her apartment feeling the vibration from the earthquake that was miles away. Her bookshelf rattled, the glass of wine on her coffee table fell, splattering her carpet in red. She didn't care, didn't move as she cried for those lost, cried for the families, even cried the Arrow.

Blinking back tears, Felicity stood up, "Get it together Smoak." She whispered to herself while smoothing out her dress.

Grabbing her tablet she walked out of her office, she walked passes her assistant, Andi's desk. A shorter women about the same age of Felicity with straight long brown hair and a very bubbly personality that makes anyone smile when they come in. When Felicity went through the hiring process for an assistant when she came to Queen Consolidated, she had no idea what to look for in potential candidates. As soon as Andi came in, she knew she was hired; a smile so big it made her smile, references up the wazoo and she knew Excel, so Felicity was happy she wouldn't have to explain that.

"Wish me luck." Felicity said with a wave.

"Good luck!" called Andi looking up from her computer.

"If I am not back in two hours, come get me with an emergency!" Felicity called back, pushing the elevator button to go up.

"It'll be fine! You got this!" Andi said, reaching for the ringing phone. "applied Sciences, Felicity Smoak's office."

Felicity stepped onto the elevator, sighing for the umpteenth time today. She was not looking forward to this meeting.

Felicity thought again of the Arrow; he hasn't shown his face in five months, or hood for lack of better word, Felicity thought, huffing to herself, but she knew why, she always knew. She just hoped he was OK.

After all, she knew a thing or two about these night time vigilantes.

Felicity Smoak was born and raised in Los Vegas, living in a small apartment with her parents Donna Smoak and Noah Kuttler. She can remember them fighting all the time; she thinks she can even remember hearing them while in the womb. They always fought, seeming to put her in the middle of it, always forcing her to pick sides. Their fighting always being about money; Noah gambling it away every weekend and Donna spending money on flashy dresses and shoes.

"I need these dresses for work!" Donna yelled one night in the bedroom, Felicity sitting at the table eating dinner alone. "I need to look good in order to get tips because you lose all our money on the slots!"

"The only reason I do that is to try to make money for your damn dresses!" Noah yelled back.

Felicity rolled her eyes and continued eating her cereal, looking at the bunny on the box.

Even though her family did not have a lot of money, Donna always made sure that Felicity had what she needed. Felicity never complained about the fact that her clothes were from the Goodwill, she didn't want to be the reason her parents had another fight. She never complained that she didn't have the newest toy or didn't have the light up shoes that also had sparkles all over them.

She turned to books to escape the constant fighting from her parents, her mother bring her to the library when she had an afternoon off. She would come home with stacks of books she would finish in just a few days.

Her favorite book was Matilda, hoping one day she would wake up and find out her had powers like Matilda. One day she tried to close the ugly living room curtains with her mind when Noah threw open the bedroom door.

"Magic does not exist." Noah said harshly to a five year old Felicity after having a very loud fight with Donna about money. "Get your head out of the clouds." He said storming towards the front door and ripping it open then disappearing though it.

Donna worked at a casino as a cocktail waitress and was gone most of the time and Noah, well who knows where he was all the time. So when Felicity's parents were gone, she would spend time with the older couple down the hall, Mr. and Mrs. Brown.

Mr. and Mrs. Brown were a sweet old, African American couple in their late sixties. They had three kids and they had a few kids of their own but they were not able to seem their grandchild that often as the family has spread over the country, but the treated Felicity as she were a grandchild of theirs and she loved them.

When Felicity had to go over to Mr. and Mrs. Brown's place, she would run over there excited to tell them about a new book she was reading. They would always listen to her with rapt attention and ask her questions about the book and the characters. Mrs. Brown would let her borrow books and play out sense in her favorite book that week.

Felicity would help Mrs. Brown bake cookies for the holidays and attempt to crack the eggs into the batter, always failing to not get the shells in, but Mrs. Brown would only smile and pick them out, "There is always next time." She would say calmly to Felicity when there were tears in her eyes. She would let Felicity frost some cookies into Christmas trees and Santa hats, and even though Felicity was Jewish, she never minded, she understood these cookies were for other people and would even get to frost some cookies to look like the Star of Davis for her own pleasure.

Felicity was convinced Mr. Brown was a hoarder. There were trinkets everywhere and a room filled with technical equipment that fascinated Felicity. When she asked him about it one evening, he said he grew up in a poorer time and possessions were valuable to him. She still didn't understand completely but went along with it anyway.

Felicity spent her seventh birthday with the Browns, but she didn't mind. Mrs. Brown had made her favorite dinner, mac and cheese, and chocolate cake to go with some mint chocolate ice cream.

They gave her her own brand new copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a book she constantly kept renting from the public library. She jumped with joy and into their arms to give them a huge hug, wanting to start reading as soon as possible.

When Felicity's father left, she wasn't surprised and she didn't cry, instead she sat by her mother's side, rubbing her back while her mother cried into her hands, shaking. "We'll be fine." Felicity whispered, "we'll be fine." Not sure if she was trying to convince her mom or herself.

A few months after he father left, Felicity was at the Browns, her mother picked up yet another shift for the weekend, she did that a lot now that her father was gone, that just meant she spend a lot more time with the Browns, which was perfectly fine in Felicity's book.

When Felicity walked into the spare room where Mr. Brown was, she saw he was building something. It turned out to be a computer, which Mr. Brown had Felicity help him build. She found out she loved it and it can surprisingly easy to her and with Mr. Browns help, they finished building an entire computer in just a few weeks, all from parts.

Felicity found she hated mysteries. She avoided the section ok book in the library and never wanted to play Clue when Mrs. Brown offered. She never could figure out the reason her father left and hated that mystery, but she found out computers where not mysterious.

Computers seemed to talk to Felicity on another level. She knew exactly what was going on with them and knew how to work and fix them. To Felicity, they were not mysterious, thus began her technology journey.

When Felicity was 14, she began high school, she always knew she was smart in middle school, but in high school, she excelled. Math and science came very easy to her and she enjoyed it very much. She supposed it was because she could figure out the mysterious equations with ease. Her freshman year, she was in senior and level classes and for math, the high school offered a college level class, and again, she got straight A's.

She joined the math league because she was good at it and so she wouldn't have to be home all the time. She mom said she didn't need to take a job while in school; Donna wanted Felicity to get good grades and get a scholarship to a good college.

Junior year of high school, Mr. Brown passed away. Felicity was devastated. She tried to spend time with Mrs. Brown, but she was busy planning the funeral and having her children and grandchildren around to help her move. Mrs. Brown was going to move in with one of her children, in Florida, Felicity held her tight and cried, she was sadder that Mrs. Brown was leaving than her own father.

After the Funeral, Felicity found Mrs. Brown sitting in the spare room surrounded by the trinkets and gadgets that were Mr. Brown are now all packed away to move and give away. Felicity sat on a box next to Mrs. Brown, saying nothing. Mrs. Brown sniffed and tuned to Felicity, "He would have wanted you to have this." She said touching the computer that Felicity and Mr. Brown had built together.

"I couldn't." Felicity replied, eyes red.

Mrs. Brown had moved away to Florida, but not without long hugs and more tears from Felicity, when Mrs. Brown had said, "You be good."

The rest of Felicity's high school career went by in a blur. She graduated with a 4.0 grade average, at the top of her class and valedictorian. She gave the cliché 'our stories are just beginning' speech with shaking hands and a flush creeping up her neck. Donna was in a sparkly gold dress and high heels, cheering her on, taking her picture on a disposable camera.

After that summer, Felicity moved to Massachusetts to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a full scholarship where she got her masters in computer science and cyber security.

She loved it there. It away from Los Vegas, away from her mom, away from her old life. She got along with her roommate, Emily, well and they would stay up late studying, and go to parties. Emily was there to back Felicity up when she kicked a lacrosse player in the balls after giving her a bit too much attention.

Freshman year of college, Felicity was ranked second in the National Information Technology competition, which she was only a tiny bit disappointed about the fact she didn't get first place.

Towards the end of her freshman year, Felicity met someone named Copper Sheldon, a tall skinny boy in the same year as her. He had brown hair and a smile Felicity fell for the moment they were pared up for a group project in one of her classes.

They had dated until near the end of their senior year and in that time had created a group with Cooper's roommate Myron Forest, where they called themselves the 'Hacktivist's' and referred to themselves and the modern day technology Robin Hood's. A few months before graduations, Cooper was arrested for a super virus when he attempted to delete all student loans for everyone.

After graduating summa cum laude, Felicity had gotten a job at Wayne Enterprises in Gotham City working in the Wayne Technology – Applied Sciences division under Lucius Fox. She had really enjoyed working there, learning many new things from Mr. Fox. She had also met many new, interesting people there, such as Richard and _him._

After a few years and a need for new scenery, Felicity decided to move to Starling City. _He_ wasn't too thrilled about the idea, but he understood her need for space and her need to get out of Gotham. So she got a job as head of Applied Sciences at Queen Consolidated thanks to Mr. Fox and Bruce Wayne himself when they so kindly wrote letters of recommendation to a man named Walter Steel, CEO of QC.

So after a year and a half of living in Starling City and the green hooded vigilantly arrived, she wasn't too surprised, and she was used to one dressed in all black. She also wasn't surprised to when she figured out who the one dressed in green really was.

The elevator dinged and the door opened up and Felicity stepped out.

After all, Felicity hated mysteries and she always knew.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I forgot to mention in the first chapter that this is my first fanfiction ever! I am not a writer so this will not be the best but I have had this story in my head for months now, like constantly thinking about it to the point that I gave in and needed to attempt to write it!

I hope you guys like it and enjoy!

I obviously don't own any characters (I wish)

Felicity stepped of the elevator, smoothing her hair and purple dress and also checking her teeth in the refection of her tablet to make sure she didn't have any fuchsia lipstick there. When she decided she was good, she took yet another deep breath, squared her shoulders, chin up high and walked towards Mr. Queen's executive assistant, Jeremy's desk. Jeremy is a shorter man with glasses and a passion to fetch Mr. Queen his coffee and organize his schedule.

Jeremy looked up, straightening his glasses and smiled wide when he saw Felicity.

"Felicity! Good to see you! How are you? I hope you've been good! Mr. Queen isn't here yet but ," he dropped his voice into a whisper, "she is already in there." With an eye roll he added, "Good luck with that, she is extra she-devily today."

Felicity chuckled. She always thought that Jeremy was the male version of her; never seeming able to stop talking except she would hate to have to grab coffee, feeling as though her master's degree would be a complete waste up her if she was his EA.

To each his own though, Felicity thought, smiling at Jeremy. "Thanks for the heads up."

She walked into the conference room and saw Isobel Rochev and Walter Steel talking to each other.

"Felicity, hello." Walter greeted her with a smile, walking towards and giving her a hug.

Felicity hugged him back with a huge smile on her face. "I didn't know you would be here. I thought you had an important meeting with The Queen or something." She said pulling away. Walter had moved back to London after the Undertaking, divorcing Moira in the process and leaving the company under new management. She liked Walter. When she first started out as head of her department, he helped her thrive and feel at home. He even felt like a father figure in a way to her. He was the closest thing to a father she had in a very long time. So she was sad and unsurprised when he left to go back home but they still kept in contact often, she even asked him advice when it came to business, and he was always happy to lend a hand when he could.

"I do have an important meeting with a Queen, just not the one you thought. I wanted to be here to support you and show Oliver the ropes. I believe he needs all the help he can get." Walter said with a chuckle.

"Right you are sir." Felicity went to the head of the conference table and started setting up the presentation she had ready.

Isobel Rochev had her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. "Where is he?" She asked, "He is always late, I don't know how he is in charge of this company."

Felicity blew out a breath, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes as she typed away on her tablet. If she was being honest, she was glad about the delay. It wasn't as though this meeting was a make or break for her career with the new CEO or trying to impress him, it was nerve-wracking because it was her telling the new CEO what was going to go down in his business. She was, after all, trying to save this company and help hundreds of people keep their jobs.

"He will be here soon." Walter said calmly, handing out Felicity's booklets for her.

As soon as he said that, Oliver Queen came stalking into the room followed by his body guard/ driver John Diggle. Mr. Queen was wearing a light grey suit with a red tie with a scowl etched on his face, his thumb and pointer finger rubbing together. Mr. Diggle whispered something in his ear before walking out of the room.

"Alright let's do this." Mr. Queen said in an impatient tone, taking a seat near the head of the table, in front of Felicity seeming very impatient to have this over with.

Felicity remembers the first time she met Mr. Queen. It was a year and a half after getting the job at QC and two months after he had come back from the island. She just had a meeting with Walter and they were walking towards the elevator as she was still talking animatedly about a new advancement in a piece of technology that she was very excited about when Moira and Oliver came walking towards them off the elevator.

"… and it would help fighter pilots fly with more accuracy. Ferris Aircraft is already itching to get their hands on it. So I think if we-"

"Are you ready for lunch?" Moira asked with a polite smile at Felicity; Walter greeting her with a kiss on the cheek. Felicity averted her eyes down to her tablet; she has always been an awkward shy around the Queen Regent, looking regal as ever in her black skirt suit and her hair not moving an inch, always seemingly put together. Felicity glanced at what she was wearing, a wrinkled purple dress with a cutout on in between her collar bones. Her clothes were nice as she always spend the extra money on clothes and shoes, she loved shoes, but standing next to Mrs. Queen, she always felt her self-esteem plummet. She wished she ironed her dress last night instead of watch that rerun of Game of Thrones.

"Most certainly. But first, Oliver I'd like to introduce Felicity Smoak, she is the new head of applied sciences." Walter said, gesturing to Felicity.

Felicity looked up as Oliver stuck his hand out, "Nice to meet you." He said in a boring voice, his face remaining impassive. He was wearing dark jeans and a dark Henley, his blond hair in a buzz cut. He also seemed strung tight, she noticed, like he was on edge; shoulders tight, his jaw clenched and eyes glancing around the room as if waiting for something. She supposed she was right in thinking he was waiting for something to happen. Five years on an island would put anyone on edge constantly. His nighttime activities probably didn't help his constant tense posture and alertness, she thought.

Felicity shook his hand, "Nice to meet you too sir, Oliver, Mr. Queen, sir. Good to see you alive and well. Or at least alive." She said in a rush. "Not saying you aren't well, you could be well, or not, I mean you were gone for a while, who would be well after that? You look well anyway, but I don't know, I didn't know you before and what you looked like or if you were well or not. But nice to meet you." She added kind of lamely, closing her eyes and bowing her head in embarrassment, counting down from three.

The three of them looked at Felicity, "Well," said Walter, used to Felicity's rambling and changing the subject, "shall we go?" he asked the other two.

The four of them walked towards the elevator, Felicity a step behind. "Felicity comes from Wayne Enterprises with reference letters from Lucius Fox and Bruce Wayne himself." Walter said, beaming at Felicity.

Oliver's head whipped around to look at Felicity at the mention of Bruce Wayne, Walter pressing the 16th floor and the lobby button, reaching for Moira's hand.

"You know Bruce Wayne?" Oliver asked his tone a bit harsh.

"Not-not personally, no." Felicity stammered, wondering how in the world he didn't just receive whiplash from how fast he looked at her. "I just worked with him a bit when he was in the applied sciences to learn about the company when he took over as CEO."

"Hmm." Oliver breathed, "I met him once. Before he took over his company. He was a big prick."

"Oliver!" Moira scolded, "You cannot say that! He is a family friend!"

"Well he was. Probably still is, right? Oliver asked Felicity, staring straight ahead.

Felicity laughed under her breath. "Mr. Wayne is very passionate about what he does and can be difficult sometimes." She smiled to herself, "But he isn't so bad. He is actually a very good boss and CEO. He cares about his employees and the city."

Oliver huffed out of his nose, "I still think he's a prick." He mumbled under his breath so his mother wouldn't hear.

Felicity smiled as the elevator door opened to her floor, stepping out, she turned to Oliver again, "Oh I don't know," she said with a knowing smile, "You two would probably get along great." She added then walked away to her office as the elevator door closed, Oliver starring after her with a surprised look on his face.

Shaking her head back to the present, Felicity smiled at the three as the other two took their seats; Walter giving her an encouraging smile. And so she began her speech. She began explaining about how, after the Undertaking, stocks for Queen Consolidated had plummeted and how after Merlyn Global had shut down, hundreds of people lost their jobs. Queen Consolidated was on the verge of a collapse, shareholders were pissed but luckily for them, Felicity had an idea that could save jobs at Queen consolidated and even employ those who lost their jobs.

"Merge?!" Oliver asked loudly in disbelief, putting his hands on the table in fists, pushing the booklets she put together to the edge of the table.

"With Wayne Enterprises, yes." Replied Felicity calmly. She knew this was coming, knew he would not be happy about the idea of doing business with what he would probably refer to as the enemy.

Oliver shook his head; "No." was all he said, curtly.

"With all due respect _Mr. Queen_ ," Felicity retorted with emphasis on his name, "I am trying to help save _your_ company, save people hundreds of jobs and let people get their jobs back after what happened a few months ago." Felicity was fuming, she hadn't even gotten to the why and Mr. Queen was already shutting down her idea. "I do believe you can put aside some childish beef you have with a successful business man and keep your company afloat."

Oliver stared at Felicity, his jaw tight in agitation

"With this merger, Wayne Enterprises and Queen Consolidated could really benefit from each other. With Wayne Technologies, they are always researching new tech, WE also sells military equipment as does QC but more weapons and munitions, which does not look very good for the company's reputation right now." Felicity pauses, letting the information sink into Oliver's thick head. "If we deprive the company of selling our military weapons and give them over to Wayne Enterprises and take over the research of technology they have acquired in the past few years, such as a more reliable, better way to have green energy here in Starling City, it would look better and benefit both companies." Felicity was pacing during this speech but stopped in front of the table, looking at Oliver. "Applied Sciences would take over the green materials they are giving us, letting us use them and create better equipment for those in the Glades along with a more green way to create less of a footprint of destroying air in the countries where productions of these materials are being built. While also creating less hazardousness waste to make Wayne Enterprises look better than it does now." She was breathing heavily, glaring at Oliver; the words rushed out of her, and in her anger with trying to get him to understand, had her hands on the table, leaning over it. "We can create green energy that LexCorp doesn't even have. That's huge."

"And if I say no?" Oliver asked, crossing his arms in a very childish way.

Felicity stood up straight, "The company goes bankrupt as the shareholders bail out, the company is liquidized to pay off its debts, or someone bids to take over the company. There is already an interested buyer, some guy who has makes smart watches and is trying to create exoskeletons for the army." She matched Oliver's body language and crossed her arms, glancing at Walter and Ms. Rochev, she added hesitantly, "And Mr. Steel already signed off on it while he was still CEO, so has Mr. Rochev along with the Board. Mr. Wayne, Mr. Fox and the board of Wayne Enterprises have also signed off on it. The plan is in motion, Mr. Queen. They are throwing us a bone, and I recommend you take it before they throw us out into the cold."

Oliver did not look happy about this new plan but with his family's company at stake, he knew he didn't to do anything to save it. "Fine." He said curtly, again. "What happens now?"

Felicity blew out a breath and quickly replied "I am forming a plan of action with Wayne's people in their tech division and then we all meet after the new year. They are coming here on the 25th of January where we will all get together and discuss the upcoming events."

Oliver's mouth went into a straight line, thinking. "Fine." He said again. And with that, he stood up swiftly, his chair almost falling over in the process, and walking briskly out of the room and towards the elevator, Mr. Diggle following him.

Felicity let out a breath she was holding, hoping it would be the last sigh of the day. "Alright." She said, nodding her head.

It was late. Too late in Felicity's book to still be at work. The sun had set hours ago, she sent Andi home about two hours ago after she fell asleep at her desk but here she was, still at work, two weeks after the meeting with Oliver Queen, working on what she is referring to as 'Operation Wayne-Queen ohmygodthereisalotofpaperwork'.

She had been corresponding with those over in Gotham and everything was going smoothly so far. There was a lot of work to do and more work ahead of them. There was even a lot of legal aspects to merging two companies on a project, so that added a bit of work to her plate as Legal needed plenty of information before this project could start to actually begin.

Her office was clad in dark; a desk lamp, her computer monitor and the moon her only light source in her office, soft classical music playing in the background. The River Flows Through You playing, her favorite song. Classical music relaxed her and she defiantly needed to relax, her shoulders have been tense for the past two weeks and a kink in her neck will not seem to go away. She jots a message on a sticky note to remind her to go see her chiropractor soon.

Stretching her arms over her head, Felicity yawns and reaches for her coffee mug and takes a sip. It's cold. She makes a disgusted face at the coffee as if it just insulted her ancestors and stands up putting her heels back on and picking up the sticky note and her coffee mug. She walked over to Andi's desk and set the note down so Andi could schedule the appointment for her. She was a busy, hard working women, especially now with 'Operation Wayne-Queen' she wasn't even sure of her daily schedule without Andi's help.

She went to the small kitchen on her floor that consisted on a fridge, sink, microwave, and a coffee bar, her favorite spot. Dumping out the cold coffee, she poured herself a new cup of coffee and put extra sugars in this one, feeling as though she needed the sugar rush to make it home. She thought of her home, where there was a nice tub waiting to be filled with bubbles, a bottle of red wine that needs to be open, and a warm cozy bed waiting for her crawl under the blankets and pass out for a good ten hours.

She took a sip of her coffee, closing her eyes at the aroma and taste, her spirits already picking up. Carrying her mug, she walked back to her office still thinking about her warm bed and the episode of Doctor Who she missed to be here and stopped in front of her desk straightening up some papers when she froze, someone was in the room with her.

I hope you guys like it so far!

Writing this story in Word, I end up with many pages but then putting it on here, it seems so little!


	3. Chapter 3

I forgot to mention before but I could not think of any actually good reason as to why Wayne Enterprises and Queen Consolidated would merge, so I just made something up. The 'Why' they are merging is not vital to the story, so if it doesn't make sense, it's all good, it's not that important. It's more so we learn more about Felicity's past. Yes, there is more!

In case you haven't realized, this takes place in season two of Arrow but Oliver never came to Felicity for help in the first season. There will be similarities but not in the same order.

I do not own the rights to the characters or some story lines I am keeping in my story!

Felicity froze. Someone was in the room with her, she could sense them, standing behind her. She put the papers down slowly, keeping her breathing even as her heart rate speed up and reached for the letter opener that resembled Bilbo Baggin's sword, Sting, something she found at Barnes and Noble and had to have as soon as she saw it.

 _No_ , she thought, _please please no_ _not him._

She took mini Sting into her hand with a tight grip. She spun around on her heel at top speed, her hair, which has been taken out of its holder hours ago, flipped out, her eyes wide as she let go of mini Sting and heard it hit its target.

She let out a breath she had been holding. It was only him. The Arrow. He was standing in the corner of the room, the darkest part of her office. She could still see him clearly though, the moon light making him visible and he was looking down at mini Sting where it had stuck into his let breast plate right where his heart is. It was sharp for a letter opener so it had stuck in there pretty well, just a few centimeters in. _He needs better protection for his chest_ , she thought. It didn't look as though he had much protecting him, just green fabric. _That's stupid_. She thought, _he could get hurt, like injury from a letter opener_. _Hasn't he seen any movie ever? That's where everyone always gets shot at._

Felicity stood still, her butt and hands leaning into her desk, looking from his hood to mini Sting and waited for him to move, still keeping her breath even, the red in her face slowly fading away. He was in his green suit, his feet apart, ready to move if he needed, his quiver on his back and his bow was leaning up against one of her comfortable, flowery chairs in her office she got from Target. _Odd,_ she wondered, _why would he set it down?_ Her eyes roamed down to his right hand where he as holding something black and flat that looked to be in bad shape. _A laptop. With bullet holes? Ok?_

The Arrow was still looking down at the letter opener as he reached up with left hand, slowly and pulled it out easily. It was bent, she frowned, she would have to go get a new one when she had the time, maybe this weekend? Felicity shook her head, she needed to focus. Looking back up at The Arrow, she saw he was holding out the letter opener now, she couldn't see his face but could tell he was confused.

When The Arrow spoke, his voice was deep and altered so she would recognize him. A voice modulator, she realized, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes. Of course _he_ didn't know _she_ knew who he was, but if he didn't want to her to know, she was not going to ruin his fun.

"This is a letter opener." He stated, still holding Mini Sting out, curiosity showing through the voice modular.

Felicity looked at the mini sword in his hand and back up to the darkness where his face is. "Yes, and you owe me a new one. Technically it's your faults it's bent. You shouldn't be sneaking up on someone in the dark. It's not cool." She told him in a tight voice, glaring at him. She was very upset about Mini Sting.

"This is a letter. Opener." He repeated the shock even more clearly in his voice. He had no idea how she was able to use a letter opener as a _throwing star._

"Do you want a gold star? We have already established that." She bit back, shuffling from one foot to the other. She wished he was wearing her panda flats right now and not her Jimmy Choos, her feet were starting to hurt from being on them all day.

He tossed the letter opener onto the floral chair his bow was leaning against, she watched it bounce once then averted her gaze back to him, glaring at him. She waited for him to say something as they both stared at each other, The Arrow still in awe at her, looking at her curiously.

Holding the laptop out towards Felicity, The Arrow said, "I need your help recovering anything you can from this laptop."

Her eyes looking back and forth from the laptop to the hood quickly, Felicity did not move. "What?" she asked in disbelief.

"This laptop is damaged and I need anything you can salvage from it." He said slowly and sternly as though he were talking to a child, trying to get her to understand something as simple as tying a shoe.

Her eyes squinted at him even more, wishing she could shoot lasers out of her eyes and into his not very well protected chest. She pictured him getting thrown through the wall of her office making him go away, she had a lot of work to do and she needed to get back to it, there were deadlines she needed to make.

"That's not a very nice way of asking someone to do you a favor." She said mater-of-factly. "You didn't even say please." She added, crossing her arms in front of her.

The Arrow took a big breath, starting to become impatient. He wanted her to take the laptop already and get to work so he could continue on his night time schedule.

"Please." He growled.

Felicity uncrossed her arms, biting the inside of her cheek, thinking. She did not want to help him; he was being rude by telling her what to do. She should kick him out of her office right now, tell him to never sneak into her office again but then again a piece of tech needed her help. She couldn't stand to see something so dear to her in so much pain. She wanted to help it. Needed to help it. So with that thought, she stretched her arm out, keeping her feet planted and took the laptop from his outstretched arm. She eyed the piece of plastic, running her hands over the top delicately, her lips forming a frown at the holes that decorated it.

"What did you do to it?" she asked him, the sorrow she was feeling for the object coming though her voice.

He took a small step towards his bow. His gloved thumb and finger rubbing together now that he wasn't hold anything thing.

"Nothing." He said shortly, picking up his bow now.

Felicity flipped the laptop over in her hands, looking at him curiously.

"So you just expect me to help you recover information on what I expect is a stolen computer, get involved in something that I'm 99 percent sure will end up being illegal, with none of my questions being answered?" She asked him, clutching the laptop to her chest, and looked at him with one eyebrow raised.

The Arrow remained silent and did not move he only stared at her, his thumb still rubbing his finger. He looked from her to the window, the street light shining below, then to the laptop.

"OK." Felicity said in a high pitched voice. She turned around towards her desk and set the laptop down. "I'll do it. You can find a new letter opener at Barnes and Noble by the table where all the Harry Potter stuff is. Can't miss it." Turning back around, she saw that he had stilled in mid step on his way towards the door of her office.

"I'll need it soon." He said and without another word he walked out of the room leaving Felicity confused.

"You're welcome!" She yelled after him but she doubted he heard her or maybe chose to ignore her.

An hour later and after walking up five floors, Felicity arrived home with a greasy bag of Big Belly burger, a milkshake, a tote bag filled to its maximum capacity with papers from work, her purse, and the intriguing laptop tucked under her arm. After some careful milkshake maneuvering, she was finally able to get her key in the lock and enter her apartment. Dropping the bag of Big Belly Burger, she walked and kicked the bag over to the living room where she dropped all her belongings onto the coffee table.

Being the head of a department in a multi-million dollar conglomerate, she had enough to spend on a gated two bedroom apartment complex that came with its own gym for the tenants along with her own washer and dryer in her apartment, and updated appliances which was a win in her book. When she decided to move herself over to Starling City, finding the perfect place was very important to her along with finding somewhere safe to settle down, so when _he_ had found this place and even gave his ever annoying approval of it, she decided on here with no argument.

Her kitchen was mostly for the looks, a place to keep her coffee maker and to store all of her left overs. She didn't like cooking nor was very good at it. Mrs. Brown had tried to teach her on many occasions but she would somehow burn Mac and Cheese, or there would be an explosion of flour when she tried to make cookies so she avoided cooking at all cost except for her cereal. The spare room used as a means of storage and work space with many parts scattered about the room. On one of the few desks she had set up, sat the very first computer she had ever made with Mr. Brown. Although she rarely used it anymore, it was still able to turn on an access the internet. Next to it sat a picture of the three of them along with a few trinkets and mementos from her years with them.

Felicity also like to make sure her place was clean which was easy as she spent most of her time at work and wasn't able to get her place messy. Everything had its spot; the coffee table lined up in the middle of the rug, the books on the bookshelf perfected over and over again until she found the right order, and the pillows on the bed and couch fluffed and set in their places.

Felicity's apartment was clean, except for the cat hair. Oh the cat hair. Felicity had always lived with someone her entire life. She lived with her mom when she was young, her college roommate, that boyfriend she tries not to think about, and _him._ She was a bit nervous to live on her own for the first time, which she thought was silly, "Get it together Smoak. You are a grown women. You can do this." She would say to herself when her heart started beating faster whenever she thought about living on her own.

After about a week of living on her own in a new city, Felicity was walking around downtown doing some retail therapy after she convinced herself she needed a new wardrobe, when she walked past a sorta creepy entrance to an ally and heard a very soft mew. Upon further investigation, she had found a small orange tabby cat that was very skinny, had fleas and seemed to be in his last days of life with no sign of a mother.

She had wrapped him up in the purple jacked she had been wearing and took him to the closest veterinarian she could find where they told her he did not have much longer to live. A while after spending some time at the vet recovering, she was able to bring him home.

She named him Sherlock for no reason other than the act that she was a big fan of the books and TV show. Sherlock was very lazy when he realized how good his life was not that he was off the street. His favorite spot was on the couch or on the window sill where the sunlight shone through. She had tried opening the window so he could go out onto the fire escape and lay in the sun to people watch but he would rather stay inside than go outside, she doesn't blame him on that. They have gotten along great and enjoyed watching movies together, cuddling up on the couch and Felicity talked about her day to him. She liked to embrace the cat lady stereotype and thought she would get more with the way her love life goes.

"Cat hair be damned." She told him one night after watching him lay on her lap. "I can deal with it."

Felicity bit into her burger and stared at the laptop sitting atop the table. She wondered who's it really was and what had happened to make it seem they needed to use it as a shield. Taking a drink of her strawberry milkshake, she picked it up in her hands and examined it. The bullet holes went through the screen of the computer and didn't seem to hit the bottom part where the keyboard was.

"How?" she asked herself. "This is one tough motherfracker."

Opening up the inside of the laptop, she took out the motherboard and saw that it was still intact.

"I can work with this." She told Sherlock getting up from the couch and going into her work room where her desktop computer was set up near the one she made with Mr. Brown.

Carefully taking the green board out of the computer, she was able to plug it into her computer. After a minute of retrieving the data, she instantly saw whose it was, Warren Patel. At first she wasn't sure why The Arrow would have a computer that belonged to a successful business man who owned his own company, Patel Industries. But upon further inspection she found many sketchy things; blue prints to Unidac Industries, emails to females that where very inappropriate for a work e-mail, pictures she definitely did not need to see, a list of names that she recognized to be individuals who wanted to buy Unidac Industries, information that closely resembles espionage, and –

She sat back in her seat, blowing out a breath. "Frack."

Constructive criticism is always welcome! Please go easy on me, again this is my first story I have ever writing. I am learning to write as it is something I have wanted to be able to do for a while now.


	4. Chapter 4

Enjoy!

It has been a week since The Arrow came to see Felicity in her office and she wasn't sure how to get in contact with him to share the information she had found from the laptop. She figured she could go to Oliver Queen himself but he has also been missing in action for the past week and didn't know when he would be back. Not that she would go to the Queen himself as he did not know she knew his secret and obviously did not want her to know, so she continued to pretend she was in the dark like the rest of the city. But the information she found was time sensitive and needed to tell him as soon as she could. She couldn't go to John Diggle, Oliver's right hand man, he was more than likely with him as they seemed to be attached at the hip and Mr. Diggle was The Arrow's partner, Spartan, so he was definitely with The Arrow doing what they do. Arsenal, the one in red, was more than likely to be with them too, not that she kept tabs on all these men but again, this was time sensitive information and she didn't really feel like going to Verdant just to see if Roy Harper was working.

"Honestly these men are horrible at concealing their identity." Felicity told Sherlock one evening looking through the laptop again. It wasn't that she purposely did research to find out who Three Musketeers are, the only reason she knew was because of the fact that they were obvious about it. Oliver Queen comes back from an 'island' and the man in green suddenly shows up, he was even put on house arrest for god's sake and still people believed him when he said he wasn't him. The Arrow saves Roy Harper and then there is a new apprentice that favors the color red. It's pretty obvious; people just don't know how to look.

She wasn't sure why she didn't tell him she knew who he was. Maybe so he wouldn't freak out? She pretended not to know because he didn't want her to know who he was? That was probably it. She wasn't afraid of him that was for sure. She did not think he would harm her if he did find out she knew. She kept his secret no matter how bad he was at keeping it himself.

So here she was a week later in the same spot as the first time The Arrow came sneaking into her office. It was another late night working on the merger when Felicity had just come back from the copier room with stacks of paper, signing a song under her breath.

"Love me, love me, say that you love me."

"Did you find anything on the computer?" said a gruff voice behind Felicity.

"Ahh!" Felicity shrieked, tossing the stacks of paper in the air. "Ugh!" she added throwing her head back in annoyance at seeing the papers scattered around the floor around her.

She bent down and started picking up the papers. "Don't you ever knock?" she asked throwing a dirty look over her shoulder toward the gruff voice.

When she was done picking up the papers, she stacked them haphazardly onto her desk and rounded on The Arrow. "You have got to stop doing that! It's no wonder people always shoot at you! Always sneaking behind them in the dark! Oh look at me I'm all mysterious and green and shoot people with arrows!" She yelled at him while making a marching gesture with her arms.

The Arrow remained still and silent waiting for the small blonde to finish her rant. While the blonde herself had turned back around and went to straighten up all the papers, taking her time. When she was done, he had turned back around to face the silent man. She noticed his bow was resting against the flowery chair again, a few feet away from him while he stood in the dark corner, his hands twitching yet again. She also noticed how he always looked ready to run away at a moment's notice. _He probably had to do that a lot._

"It's about time you showed your face." Felicity paused for a second, "Oh hood rather. I recovered what was on the laptop a week ago. I have been carrying around Warren Patel's laptop for a week! Warren Patel! Why do you have his laptop? Never mind, I know why, obviously. And where have you been? Do you really think it would take me a week to uncover information? Have you no faith in my abilities?"

"Warren Patel?" He asked as though she hadn't just scolded him.

Sighing, Felicity grabbed her tablet and brought up the information she had saved to it and turned it in her hand so the Arrow could see.

"Warren Patel, he owns Patel Industries and is currently in process of closing on buying Unidac Industries." Sighing, she dragged her finger across the screen so a new page showed what looked like emails. "Last year he hired a hit man to take care of anyone who was interested in buying Unidac, including Walter Steele, fortunately for Mr. Steel, he dropped out of the bidding before Patel could hire this man to ya know." Felicity dragged a finger across the front of her neck.

The Arrow had stayed stony silent as ever, waiting for Felicity to continue on with what she had found. After a minuet of awkward silence on Felicity's part, she clicked her tongue and faced the tablet back to her to scroll through the e-mails. "So you could take the e-mails as proof and put Patel away for a long time probably. Which would be pretty cool as I met the guy once at some function and he was a total creep."

The Arrow seemed to consider this for a moment before asking, "what about the guy he hired?"

Setting the tablet down carefully on her desk, Felicity turned back around to face The Arrow and clasped her hands together, her voice sounding somber. "Floyd Lawton, otherwise known as Deadshot. He can hit a squirrel through the eye from about, well a really long way away. It's pretty impressive honestly. He'll work for anyone who gives him the highest price for his work."

Seeming to consider this new information that Felicity had told him, he asked, "Do you know who Floyd Lawton's next target is?"

Hesitantly, Felicity picked up a manila folder from her desk and reached her hand out to him. "James Holder. He is a business man here in Starling City and he is also in the running to buy Unidac. He also sells defective smoke detectors to those in The Galdes, which Patel doesn't really care about the smoke detectors and more about the Unidac part but it's still kinds sucky for those in The Glades, many fires and many deaths. That folder has all the information to put Patel away for a really long time along with a CD that also has Patel himself talking about Floyd's work."

The Arrow had taken the folder from Felicity and was looking through it while she talked. "Thank you." With that he grabbed his bow and walked out of the room, folder still in hand.

"A man of many words." Felicity said to herself, walking back to the other side of her desk and sitting down. She went to grab some papers to do some more work when something glimmered in the corner of her eye. Looking over she saw a mini sword, the size of a letter opener, resting horizontally on the stand her previous one was lying on. Felicity smiled to herself and pulled the stack of papers towards her.

The Arrow stood atop a rooftop in the middle of the night. The night was quiet, a light breeze blowing onto his ace under hid hood. He could hear a pair of cats fighting in the distance, music blaring from an approaching car. The same car driving right through the stop sign below him, no doubt the driver thinking there was no one to pay attention to them. In the apartment across the street from him, he could see a couple with their curtains open, bare flesh moving against each other as their bodies moved in a rhythmic way. He turned his back to the window across the street, the rocks on the roof crunching under his boots as he looked at the sky.

One thing he actually missed about the island was the stars. Every night he would look up and see the millions of starts that splattered the darkened sky above him, always able to find the big dipper. It had relaxed him when his life had taken a turn for the worse, wishing he was back home, pretending everything was ok and he would wake up in his bed at the mansion where he would hear his sister Thea complaining about school and his mom scolding her saying he needed an education. Here in Starling City the stars were never seen, light pollution causing the sky to be too bright to see them. He only saw the moon now which was not able to relax him, only reminding him that it was a new month, a new problem.

Turning his head away from the sky, he walked to the edge of the building and jumped onto the fire escape, landing with little noise and continuing down two more flights of stairs until he arrived at the correct window. Testing to see if the window was unlocked, he opened it all the way and quietly snuck into the room.

The room was still and dark. Taking a few steps into the apartment, Oliver looked around and saw the place was clean. The books on the bookshelf in an order that looked like a lot of thought was put into it, a few computer parts scattered around the coffee table along with an empty glass of wine. Oliver walked over to the bookshelf and picked up a book, it looked to be very used and worn as though it has been read hundreds of times.

Oliver heard a noise behind him and dropped the book onto the bookshelf and spun around, his arm reaching behind him for an arrow. He didn't see anything but when he heard the noise again and looked down and saw an orange cat looking up at him, a toy lying in front of him as through ready to play fetch with him, its mouth opened and meows started coming out.

Walking past the cat, he walked into the kitchen and saw there were no dishes in the sink, the coffee maker ready to go in the morning before the owner of it wake up and be able to smell coffee upon awaking. He walked to the bathroom, a purple toothbrush stood up on the counter, different shades of red and pink lipsticks scattered the room. He walked to the end of the hallway to the last door and silently opened it, he saw a figure under a blanket, blond hair peeking out from under, sprayed across the pillow. The figure was breathing deeply and slowly, peaceful and unaware that he was standing in the doorway. A picture frame stood on the nightstand next to the bed, it was her and a man with their arms wrapped around each other and smiling. The man had dark, short hair and a muscular build under what looked like a police uniform and a boyish grin. He wondered who this man was. He was not someone he recognized from the Starling City Police Department and he couldn't see the nametag on him.

Taking his quiver off his back, Oliver sat himself on the floor, his back leaning against the side of the bed, careful not to move it, he tilted his head back and looked towards the ceiling and closed his eyes, a silent sigh coming out between his lips.


End file.
